'Oprah 2020': Winfrey's longtime boyfriend says star 'would absolutely' run for president
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Oprah's longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham said in response to Sunday night's Golden Globe push for an Oprah Winfrey 2020 presidential run that if called, the talk show host will serve.
"It's up to the people," Graham told The Los Angeles Times. "She would absolutely do it."
Graham's comment only reinforced growing rumors that Winfrey is seriously considering a presidential bid.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NBC network and celebrities dubbed Winfrey "our future president" following her appearance at the Golden Globes and her speech referencing civil rights and the #MeToo campaign that highlighted rampant sexual harassment.
Oprah Winfrey and partner Stedman Graham arrive at the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California February 22, 2015. (Reuters)
The iconic talk show host was also the subject of a joke by the award’s host Seth Meyers who taunted her to run for U.S. president.
“In 2011, I told some jokes about our current president at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Jokes about how he was unqualified to be president,” Mayers said. “Some have said that night convinced him to run. So if that’s true, I just want to say: Oprah, you will never be president! You do not have what it takes!”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The joke prompted NBC network to tweet and then delete: “Nothing but respect for OUR future president.”
Winfrey later went on to accept the Cecil B. DeMille Award that night – the first ever awarded to a black woman – and speak about the Me Too and civil rights movement, sparking wild speculations about her political aspirations.
“For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men,” she said. “But their time is up. Their time is up. Their time is up,” she added as A-list Hollywood celebrities stood up and applauded.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Liberal MSNBC host Joy Reid tweeted: “Switched back to the Golden Globes to watch Oprah get her award. Never let it be said that I don’t respect the president of the United States.”
Multiple other commentators and celebrities also joined saying Winfrey should run for president in 2020.
After paying tribute to civil rights and the press, she ended with a hopeful note that “a new day was on the horizon” because of people, who will “take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Associated Press contributed to this report.